Up to 30 homeless people sleep at the entrances to the various shops along the Zotos House on Smit Street in Fairland at night making it unsavoury for businesses to trade. The same happens at other mini-strip malls in the precinct.
The building is next to the entrance to the now closed Fairland dump where many homeless men loiter around hoping to salvage something useful from those who want to discard unused items.
The stench of urine was strong when visited and urine marks were obvious. Zotos regularly provide a cleaner to sweep and clear rubbish left in the road at the entrance to the Fairland dump, as do shop owners and tenants who regularly clean and sterilise their shopfronts. But it is a never-ending struggle.
Rob Janbroers, who owns Fairland Hardware on Smit Street, is actively involved in community initiatives to help the area like filling potholes and providing support to clean-up operations. But the mess at his front door is more difficult to deal with. He has lived in the area for over 25 years and has noted with concern the rising numbers of homeless, which worries him.
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Kobus Swanepoel, who owns a lawnmower shop said, “I have no problem with people sleeping here at night but I don’t understand why they have to leave such a mess for us to cope with each morning.”
He has had the windows to his shop damaged several times when skirmishes break out among the homeless outside his store.
Both stores have high volumes of flammable liquids and the worry about a huge fire breaking out is a massive concern.
Aletha Greyson recently moved into the building as a tenant, Cathy’s Q4U which sells number plates and offers vehicle registration assistance and other services. “On Saturdays in particular my clients comment on the urine stench and sometimes say they feel intimidated by the many homeless who hang around during office hours. I sometimes don’t feel safe if I am honest.”
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Being a woman, Greyson says she helps them with food and sometimes money as she hopes it will protect her and her shop from harm.
All three felt empathy for those sleeping rough but felt some kind of resolution is needed for both sides as the current situation is untenable. “We need to put our heads together to find a positive solution. As businesses, we must try to work with the homeless to find a solution that is adequate. We have a right to feel safe and to run our businesses unimpeded,” said Greyson. The paper published an article titled, Where do you want me to sleep? [Week ending June 17, 2022] where we looked at one man’s experience while sleeping rough.
Xolani Fihla, spokesperson for JMPD explained that “By law, we cannot arrest a person for not adhering to the City’s by-laws. Officials can either issue a written or verbal warning, give a fine or remove them somewhere else.” In these situations, the affected parties often return a short while later and feel undeterred by the inconvenience.
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It was clear from conversations though that nobody has any concrete answers or suggestions on how to go about solving this situation, the same sentiment was shared by other stakeholders. The paper published another article titled, You can’t wish the homeless away [Week ending September 16, 2022] that dealt with the complexities surrounding homelessness in the city.
Fairland CPF chair, Dr Gulam Karim said, “We are confronted with many challenges in our daily lives. In order to find solutions to many of these, we may need to ask the question of whether we may have contributed to the problem. Instead of pointing out the cause and effect on others, we may have to find innovative solutions. There is a greater need for introspection and consider treating others, the way we would like to be treated if we were in that situation. Putting our humanity forward before our own egos and sentiments.”
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